


Extinguisher

by NerdsbianHokie



Series: Light in the Sky [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Mild Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsbianHokie/pseuds/NerdsbianHokie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was safe, away from the Resistance, away from the First Order.  How Rey came to live on Jakku.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extinguisher

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing The Force Awakens twice, I am convinced Rey is Han and Leia's daughter, which makes her Kylo's sister. This is my take on how she ended up on Jakku.

“There’s no green.”

Ben didn’t respond, didn’t know how to.

“Why is there no green?”

She was watching him, waiting for a reply.  After a minute, he sighed.

“Some places don’t have any green.”

“Why?”

“There isn’t enough water.”

“But people need water.”

“There’s enough water for people, not enough for plants.”

“Oh.”  She settled back in her seat - the co-pilot’s chair, always the co-pilots chair for Breha.  “So why isn’t there any blue?”

He rolled his eyes.  “The water is underground.”

“So how can the people get it, but not plants?”

“It is very deep underground.  People use machines to get it.”

“Can’t the plants just make their roots longer?”

_“Catch me, Benny!”_

_He looked up just in time to see her let go of the tree branch.  He caught her with ease, her giggles tickling his neck._

_“Where have you been?” he asked, trying to put on his Big Brother voice._

_“In the tree.”_

_Such a simple answer._

_“Well, Mom and Dad are worried about you.”_

_She let out a sigh too heavy for a four-year-old.  “I told them I was gunna go climb.”_

He should have just had her killed.  Better than her incessant questions.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought.

No, he couldn’t.  Not Breha.

He turned and smiled at her.  “Plants can only make their roots so long, the water is deeper than that.”

“Oh.  Okay.”

They sailed into the atmosphere.  Breha’s face lit up as the ground grew closer.

“Is your friend nice?” she asked.

“Very.  I think you will like him very much.”

“That’s good.  I don’t like your other friends.”  She looked over her shoulder, at the door of the cabin.

She could sense the dark in them.  He knew that, he put too much effort into masking his darkness around her not to.  So much focus put into hiding from something she did naturally.

She could be amazing.  She could become the strongest Sith of their generation.  It wouldn’t take much to plant the seed, instil the hatred.

They hit some rough turbulence.  Breha laughed.  The thought vanished.

That was the line he would not cross.  He would not destroy his sister.

“There’s the town,” he said, pointing to a darker spot on the horizon.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.  Breha watched the town - nothing more than a loose gathering of huts and tents, really - get bigger.

“Will there be pods?  Can I try a pod racer?”

_The soft rumbling of his father’s voice filled the cockpit.  Ben lifted his head, and opened an eye just enough to see Breha on Han’s lap._

_The girl was curled up, but Ben knew she was most likely not asleep yet.  She never fell asleep before the story was finished.  Two-years-old and stubborn as her mother._

_“You haven’t felt anything until you’ve felt time and space distort around your ship.”_

_Ben smiled as he lowered his head._

_The Kessel Run._

_Breha’s favorite._

It just never stopped.

“I don’t think there is pod racing here.”

“Isn’t that what people do in the sand?”

He glanced at her, unsure of where she had heard that.  “Not always.”

“So what do people do?”

“Other stuff.  We’ll find out when we land.”

“Are there other kids?”

“I’m sure there are.”

“Okay.”

She settled as Ben slowed, then stopped by the tent furthest from the others.

“Alright, let’s go.”

He held out his hand, the stifled a laugh at the way Breha’s eyes narrowed as she took it.

Despite her hatred for hand-holding, however, her grip tightened every time they passed one of the crew.  By the time they were off of the ship, she refused to let go.

She stayed close to him as they entered the tent, only to let go and flee back out at the scent.  Manure.

Ben nearly followed her.

A man sat at a makeshift desk next to a cot.  He looked up, grunted, then looked back down.

“Yer late,” he said.

“Barely,” Ben replied.  He slipped his hands in his pockets, one set of fingers wrapping around the credit pouch.  He looked around the tent, his disgust showing.  “Hardly a place for a child.”

“She ain’t staying here.  Made a deal with a local.”

He took a step forwards.  “We have a deal, no slavery.”

The man made a mark in the ledger he was hunched over.  “Haven’t sold her.  Nearby family ‘s willing to take her for a few years, so long as she works.”

“Sound like slavery.”

“She can leave any time.  Not slavery, just to keep her from dying.”

The man hadn’t looked up the entire time.  Ben glared at him, before huffing.

“Alright, but if I hear-”

“You’re the one getting rid of her, ain’t you?  What do you care what happens to her?”

_“I fell.”_

_Ben raised an eyebrow at Breha’s statement.  Grass stains covered half of her outfit.  One pant leg was torn, revealing a bleeding knee._

_“You don’t say.”  He knelt next to her.  “What were you doing?”_

_She shuffled.  “Trying to climb the wall.”_

_“The wall Mom told you to not climb?”_

_She shrugged._

_He laughed.  “Let’s get you cleaned up before she sees.”_

_She grinned and threw her arms around his neck._

_“Love you, Benny.”_

Ben closed his eyes.  “I don’t.”  He pulled the credit pouch from his pocket, and stepped forwards to drop it on the desk.  “Make sure the family gets some.”

The man pulled it over, and put it in a drawer without looking at it.  He made another mark in the ledger, then finally looked up.

“Let’s go see the girl.”

Ben nodded, and led the way out of the tent.

Breha was a few meters away from the tent.  Her head was tilted as she stared out at the horizon.

He was really going to do it.  He wasn’t selling his sister, he was paying for her to be taken away.  He was committing her to a life on a desert wasteland.  He was ripping a hole - the first of many - in his family.

But, she would be safe, isolated.  Away from the Resistance.  Away from the First Order.

Away from him.

“I still don’t understand why there’s no green,” she said as he knelt next to her.

He lifted a hand to the side of her head.  “There just isn’t.”

He focused, drawing up the Force.  It wouldn’t be hard.  As strong as the Force was in her, she was untrained, only five-years-old.

Her face screwed up.  “What are you doing, Benny?”

“It’ll be alright,” he whispered.

“I don’t like it.  Stop it.”

He ignored her and focused.  No need to destroy the memories, just soften them.  No faces, no names.  Make her forget the happy times, but let her remember that they happened.

Forget the green, but remember that it exists.

She stopped squirming.  She looked at him with confused eyes.

“Benny?”

Some things, he figured, time would take care of.

“I just need to get something off of the ship, Rey.”

Her mouth silently moved around the name.  She looked down at the sand, and blinked a few times.  She looked back up at him.  “Don’t take too long.”

“I won’t.”

He stood, glanced at the man, then walked away.

_She was so little.  Were babies always so little?_

_Okay, he knew they were, but knowing, and seeing were different things._

_“Do you want to hold her?”_

_Ben looked from the baby - his sister, he had a sister - to his mother._

_“I won’t break her?”_

_His mother laughed, the sound making him smile.  “No.”_

_She placed his sister in his arms, and made sure her head was supported._

_“Her name is Breha,” his mother said._

_He looked down into the tiny face._

_“Hello, Breha.  I’m your big brother, I’m gunna take care of you forever.”_

 


End file.
